Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Teaching in the Garden

Head full of tight curls,
mischievous eyes, and an immense smile peer across the bed of freshly dug soil.
“Un, deux, trois” recites the youngster as he places a seed in each hole. Little
fingers gently cover each seed with a blanket of earth. One would imagine this
to be a scene in someone’s backyard garden, but this in fact is a sight become
increasingly common in schoolyards across North America. Numerous studies on
the benefits of having “learning gardens” have now taken place. Because of
positive findings in the improvement of skills, increase in health, and financial
savings, all elementary schools should have a learning garden.

Children who have participated in learning
garden programs have shown improvement in skill based areas such as test scoring,
social behaviors, social development, and life skills. The findings of one
controlled study, performed by Klemmer, Waliczek and Zajicek, which compared
science scores between traditional teaching methods and a garden program shows
“that fifth grade students who participated in gardening activities as part of
their science education scored 14.9 points higher compared to …the control
group”(450). In a study on the integration of gardening into school curriculum,
DeMarco, Relf and McDaniel states that gardening provided “interact[ion] with
nature on a personal level that promotes positive behavior changes”(277). They
also found that when the students were gardening together it developed
cooperation, and that the teachers were able to heighten social development by
introducing students to topics of “community service, diversity in human
culture, and environmental stewardship” (279). Furthermore, a one year study of
a school garden program by Robinson and Zajicek found that the students had
“increased their overall life skills as well as improved teamwork skills and
self-understanding”(456). Beane points out that there is a natural progression
of life skills, which starts with a young child taking on tasks and having
responsibility for the completion of the task (cited in Robinson, 456). The
successful completion of a task leads to an increase in self-confidence and
self-esteem, progresses to an increase in participation in social activities, a
higher likelihood of high school graduation and later a higher life achievement
(Beane cited in Robinson, 456). Therefore, having a learning garden essentially
leads to a higher success rate in life for the students who participate.

Another added benefit of learning
gardens is the positive effect they have on health. Rui Hai Liu of Cornell
University points out that daily vegetable and fruit consumption results in a
reduction of health issues such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease,
cataracts, cancer, stroke and more (517S). Liu also states that prevention is
more effective than treatment (517S). In order to prevent these illnesses,
children need to eat fruits and vegetables regularly. Health Canada recommends
that children aged 4-8 eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day and
that children aged 9-13 eat six servings per day. A Statistics Canada report by
Didier Garriguet shows that 70% of children aged 4-8, 62% of girls aged 9-13,
and 68% of boys aged 9-13 eat less than the recommended daily intake (20). How
does this relate to learning gardens? It is not enough to know that children
need to eat more fruits and vegetables. What has to occur is for the children to
eat the fruits and vegetables. A study by PhD student Jennifer L. Morris points
out that increasing vegetable consumption is a two-step process: the first step
is exposure, of which learning gardens are a great method of repeating
exposure, and the second step is to increase the willingness to try the
vegetables (46). The children involved in Morris’ study “were more willing to
taste” the vegetables in comparison to the students who had not participated,
and that the learning garden students ranked the taste of the vegetables more
favourably after the gardening experience (45). When a child is more willing to
try a fruit or vegetable and feels that the fruit or vegetable tastes good they
are more likely to eat more fruits and vegetables in comparison to a child that
is not as willing to try. This increase in vegetable and fruit consumption
leads to better health.

Learning gardens also have positive
effects on health for the simple reason that it is an outdoor activity. Harvard
Health Publications (HHP) points out that because outdoor activities increase
exposure to light and Vitamin D the results are a positive effect on mood, as
well as protective effects from diseases including cancer, depression,
osteoporosis, stroke and heart attacks (1). The improvement in concentration,
quicker healing rate, and increased physical activity are also listed by HHP as
health related benefits of outdoor activities (1).

All
of these benefits in skills and health lead to another interesting aspect of
learning gardens: the financial savings. The most obvious is the savings that
will result from the health benefits. An overall reduction in a wide variety of
illness and disease will directly affect the cost of medical care. According to
the Healthy Canadians report by Health Canada, “[i]n 2010, total health
expenditures in Canada were forecast as $191.6 billion” (6). In 2004, Margot
Shields of Statistics Canada reports that the rate of overweight/obese children
had risen 70% since 1978 (29). As being overweight in childhood relates to health
issues in later life, an increase of overweight/obese children of 70% is going
to drastically affect medical costs in the coming decades; consequently, as
learning gardens contribute to wiser eating choices and physical activity, then
they also lead to reductions of overweight/obese children, and the associated
health costs.

Another financial savings aspect is
in the cost savings of growing versus buying fruits and vegetables. For
example, one package of carrot seeds at $3 contains anywhere from 500-1000
seeds. Even with a low success rate of 25%, there would still be a crop of
125-250 carrots. This is a much larger number than the same $3 would yield in
the grocery store. Obviously, there are more costs to the growing of the
vegetables and it is also dependent upon the type of plants grown; but as Dan
Shapley points out a 1600 square foot garden could easily produce over $2000 in
fruits and vegetables, 7 times the value of the original investment (Shapley).
If there was an excess of fruits or vegetables, the students could also choose
to sell the produce as a fundraising venture for other school projects, or they
could donate the produce to the local food bank or soup kitchen, which again
would translate to an overall savings for the community in general.

Critics of a learning garden might
question whether gardening is really the best method to produce increased
skills, improved health and money savings; but it does not really matter if
learning gardens are the best method. What does matter is that learning gardens
are effective.Critics might question
the feasibility of a learning garden and the participation rate of teachers,
which is certainly a relevant question. The answer is that there are numerous
proven programs already developed and therefore it is more a matter of
evaluating the different programs to find the one that best suits the school
and the teachers. Critics might also argue that technology is the way of the
future and that gardening is old school; but the fact remains that everyone
needs to eat and therefore the need for the knowledge of how to grow fruits and
vegetables is still of importance despite the surge in technological
advancements. Between the increases in skills, the improvement in health, and
the financial savings, it simply makes sense that all elementary schools should have
a learning garden.

Robinson, Carolyn W., and Jayne M. Zajicek.
“Growing Minds: The Effects of a One-year School Garden Program on Six
Constructs of Life Skills of Elementary School Children.” HortTechnology
15.3 (2005): 453-457
Web 6 Nov. 2013